"A young girl who is well": an ambitious screenplay and a perfect cast "A young girl who is well": an ambitious screenplay and a perfect cast

— In the press kit, Sandrine Kiberlain explains that she got into directing because one day, after trying to understand, on set, how a film is made, strength also to have observed, successively, the functioning of all the positions of a set (photo, camera, sound, sets, costumes, accessories, etc.), she had felt "ready" to take the plunge. And in view of what is her first feature film (she had shot a short, Bonne figure), we agree with her. His Jeune fille qui va bien is breathtakingly masterful. Lights, sets, costumes, cast, editing… no weak points. The scenes are in their right place, of an ideal length, and in the right tempo.

— The screenplay is daring, which combines with mad skill the evocation of two subjects that we guess are major, obsessive, crucial for her: the period of the Occupation and the acting profession. Obviously, disgust for the first, mad passion for the second, obviously too. This scenario is all the more clever in that it leaves almost everything that is symbolic “out of scope”. No Nazi or SS flags to evoke, for example, the period in which the film takes place. And yet, one feels all of the frightening, unheard-of threat of that time for Jewish citizens. Sandrine Kiberlain does not take the viewer for a fool, she gives him clues to understand. It is the same with regard to the passion of its heroine for the theater. The latter, Irene, does not talk about it (or almost). Simply, this passion can be read on her face when she goes to her acting classes and rehearses a scene.

- Entirely made up by the filmmaker, the cast is perfect. Starting of course with the choice of Rebecca Marder to be Irene. We knew this young performer for her roles at the Comédie Française (where she has excelled since joining) and for her many participations in very different films (recently Tromperie by Arnaud Desplechin, Seize Printemps by Suzanne Lindon, La Daronne by Jean- Paul Salomé…), but this is the first time that on the screen, she is top of the bill. In this character of an apprentice actress who laughs, plays, loves and vanishes with the same naturalness and the same candor, she is wonderful. Beautiful and sublime, it has a crazy vitality, both breathtaking accuracy and at the same time crystal fragility. Rare are the performers who, under the dazzling gaiety of their roles, know how to bring tragedy to the surface like her. Rebecca Marder is 26 years old. She splashes the screen. We can bet that a great career awaits him.

His partners are obviously at the same level of play. André Marcon plays his father with overwhelming sobriety, Anthony Bajon is surprisingly candid in the role of his brother. As for India Haïr who plays her friend, she proves once again that she is able to make people laugh and move with the same talent.